Thornden Park

Despite gray skies, Thornden Park was shrouded in green Sunday afternoon for an all-day celebration of Earth Day 2012. The late-day rain held off just long enough for five-hour celebration starting at noon.

The Syracuse Rose Society has cared for Thornden Park's rose garden since 1970, transforming it into a botanical paradise.

Every Wednesday morning from April to November, as the earliest rays of sun filter over the Syracuse University Hill, members of the Syracuse Rose Society arrive at Thornden Park’s E.M. Mills Memorial Rose Garden.

As the sun extends higher in its arc, the Rosarians move through the rows of rose bushes, weeding, planting, pruning, pausing only to share bits of gardening advice.

While the 76-acre park adjacent to SU's campus has a reputation for criminal activity, actual incidents since 2008 suggest the popular spot may not be as dangerous as many believe.

What comes to mind when you hear the words Thornden Park?

Picnics, fresh air, long walks and gardens?

Or rather, is it rape, robbery, assault and murder?

If you’re a Syracuse University student, there’s a good chance Thornden’s sinister reputation as a place where criminals lurk behind every rose bush trumps nearly anything you’ve heard about the park’s assets.

With her infant daughter in tow, Miranda Hine would walk the few blocks from her home on Maryland Avenue to Thornden Park in the early 1980s.

"It was after four or five months that I was talking to a friend and she said, 'You don't go into the park alone do you?' " Hine said. "And those are a lot of the conversations that you would have with people. 'You wouldn't as a female go into that park alone?' they'd say, and I have been, for the past 30 years, and it's absolutely fine. "